Zombie Book Club

Welcome to Zombie Book Club! We're a Podcast that's also a book club! We talk about Zombie / Apocalyptic horror novels, TV and movies.

Zombie Book Club is a arts podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 163 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Zombie Book Club, a arts show with 163 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #161

  The Internet Apocalypse That Already Happened | Zombie Book Club Ep. 161

  Aug 16, 20261h 24mS4

  The open, weird, human internet you grew up on is dead, and most of us kept scrolling like nothing happened. From Web 1.0's personal sites and forums to today's "narrow web" of a handful of platforms, the internet had changed is big ways that shift ownership from the people to a handful of greedy tech billionaires. We talk about dead internet theory and the real Cloudflare data showing bots now generate more web traffic than humans for the first time ever. Then we take a look at Moltbook, the real forum where only AI agents can post while humans just watch. We also discuss what the current state of the internet is doing to our nervous systems, leaving us feeling wired but numb. What are people doing about it? Flip phone summer, digital minimalism, and rebuilding elsewhere through the small web, the IndieWeb, and the Fediverse (Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, Lemmy). No path fully fixes the internet, but are worth knowing about if you've felt the burnout too. Relevant Links What the Internet Used To Be / The Narrow Web The Narrow Web (Leon Furze): https://leonfurze.com/2025/07/13/the-narrow-web/ The Indie Web, The Boring Web, Web Rings (Medium): https://medium.com/@gotkoin3/the-indie-web-the-boring-web-web-rings-e4a4355e8944 Dead Internet Theory Dead Internet theory (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory Sam Altman Says He's Suddenly Worried Dead Internet Theory Is Coming True (Futurism): https://futurism.com/sam-altman-dead-internet-theory Bot web traffic has overtaken human web traffic, data shows (NBC News): https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/bot-web-traffic-overtaken-human-web-traffic-data-shows-rcna348522 Zombie Internet / Moltbook OpenClaw's AI assistants are now building their own social network (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/openclaws-ai-assistants-are-now-building-their-own-social-network/ Top AI leaders are begging people not to use Moltbook (Fortune): https://www.fortune.com/2026/02/02/moltbook-security-agents-singularity-disaster-gary-marcus-andrej-karpathy Moltbook (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moltbook How It Feels Now Digital Detox 2026: Life Hacks to Reclaim Your Brain (Citipen): https://citipen.com/digital-detox-life-hacks-2026/ Flip Phone Summer (Brainstamped): https://brainstamped.com/digital-wellness/guides/flip-phone-summer-gen-z-digital-detox-movement-2026/ Smartphone screen time reduction improves mental health: a randomized controlled trial (BMC Medicine): https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-025-03944-z Strategy A: Rebuild Civilization Behind the Walls Small Web (The Paper Pilot): https://paperpilot.dev/garden/small-web What is the 'Indie Web' and the Web Revival Movement? (HOUDINI Magazine): https://houdinimagazine.com/articles/2026-01-21-what-is-the-web-revival-movement Small web, IndieWeb, Gemini... A guide to the retro-web (Kevin Boone): https://kevinboone.me/web-adjacent.html Kagi brings its 'small web' of a human-only internet to mobile devices (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/17/kagi-small-web-human-authored-indie-internet-mobile-ios-android-devices/ What Is the Fediverse? (SocialRails): https://socialrails.com/social-media-terms/fediverse The Fediverse in Numbers: Latest Stats on Mastodon and Decentralized Social Media (2026) (Fediview): https://fediview.com/articles/fediverse-in-numbers-mastodon-stats-2026/ An evidence-based and critical analysis of the Fediverse decentralization promises (arXiv): https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.15383 The Fediverse Is Growing (elest.io): https://blog.elest.io/the-fediverse-is-growing-why-decentralized-social-media-matters-in-2026/ Strategy B: Leave the Matrix Best Dumbphones (2026) (Vice): https://www.vice.com/en/via/best-dumb-phones/ Digital Detox Trends 2026: What's Driving the Shift? (Accio): https://www.accio.com/business/digital_detox_trends Support the show Zombie Book Club Links Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/ ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/ Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

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  Episode #160

  'I Am Legend' The Alternate Ending Changes EVERYTHING | Zombie Book Club Ep 160

  Aug 9, 20261h 26mS4

  We're revisiting Will Smith's 2007 I Am Legend , theatrical cut and alternate ending both, to unpack why swapping the finale flips the whole film from action-hero sacrifice to something far more morally complex. We start with Richard Matheson's 1954 novel, detour through the earlier adaptations The Last Man on Earth and The Omega Man , and get sidetracked (as always) debating whether the Darkseekers are zombies, vampires, or their own "zomb-pire" category entirely. Then we dig into Neville's isolation and mannequin coping mechanisms, why Sam's death still wrecks us every time, and how the alternate ending recontextualizes the entire siege as a rescue mission rather than a monster attack; restoring the moral ambiguity (and the actual meaning of the title) that the theatrical cut throws away. We also talk about what's confirmed so far about I Am Legend 2 , including Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan, and why the sequel is treating the alternate ending as canon. Relevant Links: I Am Legend (2007) – IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/ I Am Legend (1954 novel) by Richard Matheson – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_(novel) The Last Man on Earth (1964) – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Man_on_Earth_(1964_film) The Omega Man (1971) – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Omega_Man I Am Legend 2: release date, cast, and everything we know – GamesRadar+: https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/action-movies/i-am-legend-2-release-date-cast-plot-trailer-and-everything-we-know-about-the-upcoming-horror-sequel/ Support the show Zombie Book Club Links Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/ ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/ Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

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  Episode #159

  'Intercepts' with T.J. Payne | Zombie Book Club Ep 159

  Aug 2, 20261h 12mS4

  We welcome horror author T.J. Payne to talk about Intercepts , a sci-fi horror thriller where a secret government facility tortures prisoners into becoming "antennas" who can hijack the senses of anyone on Earth. At the center is supervisor Joe Gerhard, a man who tells himself the work is necessary right up until his own daughter, Riley, becomes a target. We dig into the banality of evil, workplace dehumanization, and how ordinary people talk themselves into extraordinary harm. We also get into the real-world roots behind the horror (NSA-style intercepts, MKUltra, sensory deprivation research), T.J.'s wild path from Hollywood ghostwriting to indie-published success to landing in TV writers' rooms, and why he thinks "writer voice" is just the weird kid you tried to hide in middle school. Guest Contact & Social Links — T.J. Payne Website: https://tjpayneauthor.wixsite.com/tjpayne Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tj.payne.author/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tj.payne.author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18547206.T_J_Payne Intercepts (Penguin Random House): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/833286/intercepts-by-t-j-payne/ Related Topic Links (for show notes) Hannah Arendt & "the banality of evil": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banality_of_evil MKUltra overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra Sensory deprivation research: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_deprivation Under the Bridge (Hulu, TJ Payne writing credit): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Bridge_(TV_series) Support the show Zombie Book Club Links Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/ ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/ Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

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  Episode #158

  Dan Finished the First Draft of 'The Bad Road' | Zombie Book Club Ep 158

  Jul 26, 202658 minS4

  Dan finally admits what he's been hiding: while everyone assumed he was still deep in his long-gestating zombie apocalypse novel, he secretly drafted an entirely new novella, The Bad Road , in two weeks flat. The origin story is almost stranger than the book itself; it started as a 3D-rendered, fake Instagram book cover of two bikers outrunning a dust-churning zombie horde down a dead-straight highway, an image so convincing that people kept asking where to buy a book that didn't exist. So Dan wrote it. The result follows brothers Ty and Michael, months into the outbreak and out of fuel, fleeing a city-sized horde across the mirror-flat, flood-prone expanse of Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats along I-80. Relevant to this episode's topics: Bonneville Salt Flats: https://www.visitutah.com/articles/bonneville-salt-flats-planning-guide Serial Fiction Success for Indie Authors: https://indieauthormagazine.com/the-intentional-craft-of-successful-serialized-fiction/ Publishing Novellas: A Niche Format for Aspiring Authors: https://spines.com/self-publishing-a-novella/ Support the show Zombie Book Club Links Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub Join the Brain Muncher’s Zombie Collective: https://discord.gg/rn3nPDa4CB ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/ ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/ Zombie Book Club Voicemail: (614) 699-0006‬ Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

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  Episode #157

  'The Twelfth House' with special guest Robert de la Chevotière | Zombie Book Club Ep. 157

  Jul 19, 20261h 17mS4

  We sit down with Robert de la Chevotière ahead of the August 25, 2026 release of his novel The Twelfth House ; a literary work steeped in West African folklore and magical realism. At its center is Etta, an ogbanje: a spirit trapped in an endless cycle of death and rebirth, whose desperate will to live pulls her father Bako from the coast of Benin onto a slave ship bound for colonial Dominica. We talk with Robert about writing unflinchingly about slavery while still leaving room for lyricism and beauty; about the mountains, forests, and ancestral ocean that act as living characters in the book, and about villains who are complicated rather than simply "evil." Robert discusses teaching middle school after burnout, and what it meant for Robert to feel like Etta "took the pen" from him mid-draft. Along the way we dig into reincarnation as a metaphor for diaspora, the dedication to Wai'tukubuli (the Kalinago name for Dominica), and the uneasy line between allyship and complicity. It's a conversation about memory, resistance, and what we owe the dead. Guest Contact & Social Media Author website: robdelabooks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robdelawrites/ Preorder 'The Twelfth House' (Before August 25th, 2026) : https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-twelfth-house-robert-de-la-chevotiere/1149880270?ean=9781645662037 Audible author page: https://www.audible.com/author/Robert-de-la-Chevotiere/B0F1MYKPNP Support the show Zombie Book Club Links Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub Join the Brain Muncher’s Zombie Collective: https://discord.gg/rn3nPDa4CB ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/ ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/ Zombie Book Club Voicemail: (614) 699-0006‬ Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

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